Nightwalk Pavilion
by JaganshiKenshin
Summary: When Hiei encounters a seemingly drunken Kuwabara and Botan sends Yuusuke to assist, they get more than they bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Kenshin does not own the Yuu Yuu Hakusho characters (they are the property of Togashi Yoshihiro et al), and does not make any money from said characters.

What Kenshin **does** own, however, are all the original characters in this work. Any attempt to "borrow" these characters will be met with the katana, or worse.

For those into timelines, _Idiot Beloved_ is set after the Dark Tournament; _Firebird Sweet_ follows. For background on the mysterious Agency, see _Operation Rosary, Trade Secret, Farewell Mr. Groovy,_ and _The Book of Cat With Moon._ _Nightwalk Pavilion_ takes place soon after _Maya's Tale,_ when the boys are now in their early 20s, Hiei being the eldest by a few years.

This particular story concerns a couple of Spirit Detectives, detecting. And features a rare-for this author-appearance by Urameshi Yuusuke.

Title: Nightwalk Pavilion

Author: JaganshiKenshin

Genre: General, Mystery

Rating: K+/PG-13

Summary: The town is deserted, Kuwabara is acting strangely, and Kurama is missing. It's up to Hiei and Yuusuke to find out why.

A/N: Thanks for reading this, and I appreciate your reviews!

Could it really be a place where dreams come true?

Nightwalk Pavilion (Part 1: Barrier! Hiei and Yuusuke Walk Into A Trap!)

by

Kenshin

On that soft June night, the main drag was deserted, but not deserted enough.

"Yo, Hiei!" From the end of the block, someone hailed him, and with a long-suffering sigh, Hiei stopped.

Six feet of gristle and bone, with a granite slab-face topped by a carrot-colored buzz cut, Kuwabara Kazuma approached.

Every three or four steps, Kuwabara took a little sidewise jog, then corrected his course. _Strange,_ Hiei thought, _like he can't decide whether to stay or go._

Kuwabara lurched to a halt. He looked down at Hiei. He rasped, "Just the guy I wanna see."

"I doubt it." Hiei prided himself on having gained enough patience to handle even Kuwabara with detachment. He had, in fact, just been ejected from filming a rather involved commercial for a new department store. Two weeks of close confinement with make-up artists and costumers poking at him like some Barbie doll, and Hiei had refrained from slaying a single one of them.

Then the financial backers withdrew, and the project was canceled. Still Hiei had slain no one. This was progress.

Kuwabara's jacket was filthy, his face shiny, his eyes bloodshot. He looked-and smelled-as though he hadn't bathed in a week. Scraping a hand through his greasy hair, his gaze darting everywhere, Kuwabara replied, "Yeah, but I'm, ahhh, headin' back to, you know, that place."

"Let me guess. The Nightwalk Pavilion?"

"Yeah, yeah, that place where dreams come true! Wanna come?"

"No." Hiei hadn't seen the light of day since starting work on the ad, and was just trudging home, starved.

"You should go, man!" Kuwabara bared his teeth. "Where dreams come true!" Turning abruptly, he jerked down the street like a badly-operated marionette and disappeared around a corner.

Was that why the city was deserted? Because everyone was busy having his dreams come true?

The Nightwalk Pavilion. The very name was mysterious, exotic, intriguing. Hiei wondered who owned it.

He resumed his trudge, but a rush of wind and a flying figure stopped him in his tracks.

"Hiei!" It was Botan, Koenma's chief ferry girl and Urameshi's sidekick, white-knuckling her oar straight at his head. "Thank goodness I found you!" She braked just in time, hovering in mid-air, her azure ponytail in disarray with the speed of her arrival.

"Go be cheerful on some other planet," Hiei grumbled.

"I'm not cheerful! I'm concerned. Besides, how can I be cheerful when the mayor is missing?"

"That carpetbagger? Good riddance."

"Hiei! This is an emergency." Waggling her finger, she added, "Where's your sense of civic duty? No, don't answer. Now you wait right here for Yuusuke!"

Hiei was no fan of Kuwabara's, but oddly enough they worked better together than he and Yuusuke. "What for?"

"Haven't you been paying attention?" Botan waved at the empty street. "I'm off to find Kurama. Don't move a muscle!" But before Hiei could inform her that Kurama had also gone AWOL, she soared off.

From the window of an all-night coffee shop, a well-dressed elderly woman stared at Hiei. Something in her stare drew him, and he went to the shop, the old lady tracking his every step. "So you're going, too," she said.

Up close, she had a pug nose, and startlingly vivid eyes of hydrangea blue. Hiei asked, "Going where, grandmother?"

" _There_ ," she said bitterly. "That damned Pavilion."

"And what if I am?"

"People go but never leave. The city's lost."

He said, not unkindly, "Go home. This is no place for you."

"Home's not the same without my son and the kids."

"Your son? At the Nightwalk Pavilion...?"

"Whole blasted family. When it first opened a week ago. Not a word until he just called me for more money. As if I'd be fool enough to send it."

 _It's got nothing to do with me,_ Hiei told himself. He didn't know this old woman from Eve. Yet he heard his own voice saying, "I'll bring them back."

She pressed her lips together. "For a pipsqueak you sure talk big."

He let the insult go.

Outside, there was Urameshi Yuusuke running to meet him, a combat-fit youth of medium height with brown eyes that blazed fighting spirit, and Yakuza hair black as a jelly-bean.

Urameshi looked around. "I've been inside slingin' ramen all week and just got the call. Isn't Kurama here yet?"

"No, and Botan won't find him."

"Then it's just us two." Urameshi cheerfully cracked his knuckles. "Botan says it's in a bad part of town."

"Good." As they headed for the notorious Myu-Myu district, Hiei recounted what the old lady had said. "Eerie. Like a post-apocalyptic city, with no apocalypse."

"What do you think's goin' on?"

"Kuwabara looked-like he was in the grip of something. But he wasn't drunk. No smell of liquor."

They crossed a deserted boulevard. "Was he sick?"

"Maybe," Hiei said thoughtfully. "And haven't you noticed? For a while now, there's been a sound in the background, maybe music, maybe not."

"I thought there was a smell..." Urameshi sniffed, ostentatiously. "Nope, gone."

Though Hiei admired Urameshi as a fighter, as a gumshoe-

But, Hiei told himself, he was calm, mature, dignified. Rather than wish for Kurama's brainy presence, he would play to Urameshi's strengths: toughness, buoyancy, and luck.

Urameshi was, after all, their linchpin, the man whose very character had caused Hiei to change...a little. And somewhere along the way, he had been roped into fighting the Shadow Wars for the mysterious Agency, whose existence was so hush-hush not even government officials knew of it.

This made him a very busy man. "Better find a taxi."

"Well, Sherlock?" Urameshi took a look down the street. "Why did we resist the irresistible?"

Good question. "What's different about us?"

" _Youkai_ blood? My ancestor-"

"No. Kurama's missing, too." Hiei frowned. "Let's not overcomplicate this. Maybe it's as simple as being indoors."

"Meaning we didn't get caught in the first crush?"

"That old lady said once you go, you stay."

"But Kuwabara got out."

"Yeah. And went right back in."

Urameshi hailed a passing cab. Most cabbies avoided the heart of the Myu-Myu district even in daylight. Not this guy.

Hiei dug out a lump of cash and handed it to the driver. "Gave me too much." He pushed some of the cash back toward Hiei.

Hiei waved it away. "I'm paying you for information."

"Cop? Yakuza?" With a worried look, the cabbie drove off.

"Relax. I just want to know some demographics."

"Some what?"

Over Urameshi's giggle, Hiei said, "Your fares. How old they were, how many, that sort of thing."

The cabbie thought a minute. "Everybody wants to go. I mean everybody." As the cab pressed on, the neighborhood grew seamier. "Been hauling couples, teenagers, salarymen, families with kids, and the funny thing is, never any return fares."

"I get it." Hiei glanced at the streets, and then saw a crowd up ahead-and something much more bizarre and interesting. "This is far enough," he told the cabbie. "Let us out here."

The Nightwalk Pavilion stood before them. An entire block of derelict buildings had been knocked down to make room for its construction, and a restless line of people stretched around the perimeter, waiting to get in.

They strolled toward the entrance. "Hey, Moneybags," Urameshi began, jerking his head toward what had been obscured by distance and other buildings. "Get a load of that."

Hiei nodded. He could see it, of course. He had seen it from the cab. But no ordinary human could. It was a barrier, a force field that covered the entire block.

A network of electric-blue threads, the forcefield resembled an enormous, glowing berry basket placed upside-down.

They ignored the line and cut straight to the entrance. "You realize we're walking straight into a trap," said Hiei.

"So what?" replied Urameshi. "But I wonder if the barrier's for disease containment. You said Kuwabara looked sick."

Hiei narrowed his eyes. "If that's the case, then the city's already been contaminated and this job is beyond our scope."

"We still got a trifecta on our hands. Find the mayor, find Kuwabara, and solve the mystery of the Pavilion. Suppose the mayor's inside, helping contain things?"

"Then why hasn't he phoned his staff?"

Urameshi thought a while. Hiei could see the gears turning. "Military silence? If the Army or the Agency is in on this-"

"Not the Agency. I'd have been informed."

He thought some more. "Maybe phones don't work in there."

"The old lady's family called her for money. Besides, Kuwabara could see the barrier, so why go in there on his own?"

"Whatever it is," Urameshi said cheerfully, "I can stand it if you can. Let's do this, Moneybags."

 _Idiot._ "Don't get used to that name. And do not eat or drink anything in there."

"Yeah, yeah." Urameshi waved a dismissive hand.

A flimsy fence marked the Pavilion's limits. The wall-to-wall crowd suggested a ripe ground for pickpockets, but that would hardly begin to pay for the barrier.

"Won't be easy finding the mayor in there," said Urameshi.

"You even know what the mayor looks like?"

"Well, uhhh..."

"Me either."

"I know what Kuwabara looks like," Urameshi said brightly.

"You sure?"

A revolving door was the only entrance. The cover charge was steep, but not so steep as to cause nosebleeds. Inside, a stench hit them: unwashed bodies, portable bathrooms, rancid frying oil. "Whatever's reeling 'em in," coughed Urameshi, fanning the thick air, "it ain't no flower show."

Hiei was made of stern stuff, but he lost his appetite at once. "Any sane person would take one breath and run."

"Then why's the place packed like a sardine tin?"

A human male with wavy yellow hair and an oily grin bustled up. His black-and-yellow striped jacket made him look like a bumblebee. "Welcome to the Nightwalk Pavilion!" He rubbed his hands together. "Where dreams come true."

"Are you the owner?" asked Urameshi.

"Goodness, no. I'm your host."

 _Host, my third eye._ Hiei knew a bouncer when he saw one. "Suntory, straight up, no chaser."

"Right away, Sir." The Bee scurried off.

Urameshi scowled at Hiei. "Thought you said don't eat or drink anything."

"I know what I'm doing."

"Riiight. If you're practicing to become a lush."

The amber liquid arrived in a clear plastic cup, and cost almost as much as Hiei paid at Place Plendome, the most exclusive eatery in Tokyo. Hiei sniffed, sipped, then spat onto the ground, narrowly missing a man's shoes. "Colored water."

"Well, that's one way to make money."

"But look." Hiei indicated the crowd. People screamed with laughter, swayed, staggered. "Everyone's acting drunk."

Urameshi agreed. "Like how you said Kuwabara was."

Hiei tossed the phony drink aside. "But on what?"

The Pavilion was not only jammed with a crush of people, but also tents and kiosks, cheap and tawdry and probably stolen from elsewhere: Pachinko games like shiny, vertical pinball machines; free-standing Tiki bars; made to be put up fast and taken down faster. Card tables; roulette tables; to which city officials must have turned a blind eye, for apart from horse races, gambling is illegal in Tokyo.

In Las Vegas, where gambling is an industry unto itself, there are no clocks in the casinos. Gamblers lose track of time.

Hiei explained this, shouting to be heard. "But the Pavilion's open to the sky. People should be able to guess how much time's passed."

"So it's like Vegas." Urameshi shrugged. "A city block, stuffed with people and cash siphons. And what if it is? Can't force people to behave." As if to prove it, Urameshi grabbed an empty cup off a Tiki bar, balanced it on his head, and jammed two straws up his snout.

"Hilarious."

In answer, Urameshi stuck out his tongue.

"And with gambling illegal," Hiei continued, through gritted teeth, "someone's looking the other way... like the mayor."

"Great. So we're here to bust a measly gambling ring?"

"There's got to be more to it. Even the Yakuza run their gambling rings in secret."

A place where dreams come true. Yet none of the clientele seemed to be having fun, but rather emitting shrieks of hollow laughter and desperation. Up ahead, on a roulette table, a little girl in a pink dress lay sleeping. Whose kid was she? And what sort of parent would allow this?

Over the discord of numerous bands and DJ booths on top of barkers and pachinko pings that grated on his nerves, Hiei added, "I don't see my dreams coming true here."

"Maybe you ain't lookin' hard enough," Urameshi slurred. He seemed just a little too happy when he pointed to the approximate center of the Pavilion. "Hey, now _that's_ pretty cool."

On a platform about six feet off the ground stood a large pagoda with a red tile roof.

Adding insult to injury, Urameshi began _singing._

 _So glad I'm not like you or that fool Kuwabara._ As Urameshi dashed toward the pavilion, Hiei scrambled to catch up.

But a man with a pug nose surged from his seat at the roulette table and clawed at Hiei's sleeve, laughing and weeping at the same time. "Get us out! Get us out!"

Hiei extracted his arm. "Why?"

"Huh?" His hydrangea-blue eyes were bloodshot, but emotions washed across them, as easy to read as words in a book: fear, anger, bewilderment. His face was shiny, like Kuwabara's.

Euphoria, with a side of hysteria. On water.

"My kids," the man babbled. "Where-" Then the dealer called for bets, and like a mechanical toy, the man turned to place his, and Hiei knew that this was the old woman's missing son, and the girl sleeping on the table one of her grandkids.

But he could do nothing about it. Not until he understood what was going on. He caught up with Urameshi fiddling with a Pachinko machine. "Come on," Hiei said. "We have work to do."

Urameshi shook his head. "Can'cha see I'm playin'?"

"We don't have time for this!" Hiei considered whether a backhand to the chops would improve Urameshi's concentration.

Urameshi clenched a fist. "Wanna piece of me, cockroach?"

"Anytime, jackass." Hiei readied his own fists, then stopped, scrubbed at his face. "What the hell are we doing?"

Urameshi called him a bad name. Responding in kind, Hiei stalked off. To Hiei's surprise, Urameshi followed, albeit with much grousing.

As they reached the pagoda, Hiei sensed _youki_.

The pagoda sat on a raised wooden platform, reminding Hiei somewhat of the Dark Tournament's combat ring. Several Bumblebee bouncers surrounded its base.

A moving track circled the platform floor outside the pagoda like a merry-go-round. But rather than carousel horses, the track bore a single gold throne.

On it sat a sere, angular female nearing sixty. With a black dress that made her yellowish skin look like parchment, she also wore a gold filigree crown resembling antennae. Built along queen-bee lines, she was scrawny from the waist up and bloated from the waist down.

Even with her sharp features and predatory air, she seemed human... until you noticed the abnormally slanting eyes, with their green sclera and gold slits for irises.

"Oho," Hiei said. "It's the Yellowjacket."

Urameshi stared at him. "You KNOW this old bat?"

"By reputation only. She'd tell you she's an honest businesswoman, and I'd have no trouble with that. But the Yakuza would be afraid of _her._ White slavery, gambling, drugs... those are just some of her rackets."

"Why's a _youkai_ like her in the human world?" Urameshi squeezed his eyes shut, pounded his temples. "Brain hurts from thinking. Need someone good at that. Better find Kuwabara."

"No, wait!"

But Urameshi, bull-headed as always, charged into the crowd.

 _Jerk._ Hiei preferred inspecting the contraption and interrogating Yellowjacket to chasing Urameshi. It shouldn't take long. Leaping onto the platform, Hiei landed on one toe, overbalanced, and flailed his arms in windmill fashion.

Yellowjacket giggled.

Hiei regarded her sourly. A cloying perfume like spoiled honey billowed from her. Around her skinny wrist was a bracelet, fashioned of six beads resembling drops of clear venom.

Bumblebees to either side were fanning her with peacock feathers. She lifted an eyebrow at Hiei.

It was quieter on the platform. Hiei did not need to shout. Keeping pace with the slow movement of the throne, he asked, "Are you one of the attractions?"

She regarded him with amusement. Hiei, too, may have been notorious, but it was doubtful she would 'make' him in his worn leather jacket and jeans. She would, however, sense his _youki._

Fondling her bracelet as though it was a pet, she simpered. "Well,now, Duckie." Her voice reminded Hiei of a syrup-dripping dagger. "You're a different one, aren't you?"

"Me? Just a plainclothes cop pounding the beat."

"Why not stop and smell the roses, Officer?"

"They reek of sewage from here."

She yawned. "You cops are all alike: in the way."

"Mayors, too?"

"I think I saw him last at the craps table."

"What sort of racket is this anyway? You can't make enough off watered drinks and loaded dice to run this enormous barrier."

She adjusted her crown. The two Bumblebees around her suddenly were four, looming over Hiei.

"Oh, good. A fight." Hiei lunged for them, almost tripped again, but stopped himself, puzzled, collecting his thoughts and the shreds of his dignity.

"Think you can take me? Go ahead on." Hiei drew himself up, crooked a finger. "I don't bounce so easy."

"Duckie, Duckie!" Yellowjacket's strange eyes flashed. "Why must you assume everything is a threat?"

Hiei shrugged. "That's just how life goes."

The bouncers looked for their queen to give them direction. Itching for a donnybrook, Hiei staggered forward.

It was then that he realized something was terribly wrong.

-30-

(To be concluded: What's keeping everyone in thrall?)


	2. Nightwalk Pavilion Part 2

Please see Disclaimer in Part One.

 _Idiot Beloved_ is set after the Dark Tournament; _Firebird Sweet_ directly follows. For background on the mysterious Agency and its Shadow Wars, see _Operation Rosary, Trade Secret, Farewell Mr. Groovy,_ and _The Book of Cat With Moon._ _Nightwalk Pavilion_ takes place shortly after _Maya's Tale._

This is about a couple of Spirit Detectives, detecting.

Title: Nightwalk Pavilion 2: (Challenged! Hiei Holds His Fire!)

Author: JaganshiKenshin

Genre: General, Mystery

Rating: K+/PG-13

Summary: Hiei and Yuusuke find Kurama and Kuwabara, but their troubles are far from over.

A/N: Thanks for reading this, and I appreciate your reviews!

The palace where dreams come true turns into a prison of nightmares.

Nightwalk Pavilion Part 2: (Challenged! Hiei Holds His Fire)

by

Kenshin

Something was terribly wrong for Hiei. It wasn't the bodyguards; Hiei could dismantle them with one hand behind his back and three eyes closed.

He was so powerful, in fact, that he could blow this joint sky-high without so much as breaking a sweat.

There was his Jagan, capable of psychic powers and the newly-developed Jagan Wave. And his fire. And the Black Dragon Wave. And his strongest attack, Sword of the Archangel, which would literally reduce the complex to a puddle of black glass, vaporizing all youkai except himself, while leaving humans relatively unharmed.

 _Maybe I really should do it. Blow the joint up. Walk away._

Wait-what was he thinking? And how was it that Urameshi scraped his nerves raw, when he had no problems handling Botan or the equally annoying Kuwabara? And Urameshi, while he could be irritating, was no fool. But he was acting like one.

Hiei had also blown his cover, which was stupid of him. Almost as stupid as Kuwabara.

 _What's gotten into me?_ He, who a couple of hours ago had prided himself on maturity and calm?

The very air felt hot, itchy, as if every oxygen molecule had it in for him and was backhanding his skin.

The bouncers looked to their boss, confused.

Their boss watched with some amusement, her eerie green-gold eyes glittering maliciously.

Hiei thought some more, and thinking was harder than it should have been. He didn't _take_ awkward steps, but he'd almost taken a header off the platform, stumbling like a stringless marionette. He was behaving, not like Kuwabara, but like-

When the answer came, Hiei knew they were in deep trouble.

Hoping Urameshi's legendary luck would hold, he turned his back on the bouncers, scanning the crowd.

With a sense of relief, he spotted Urameshi bulling through the crush-with Kurama in tow.

Hiei jumped down to meet them. Kurama was an ally in a million: smart, tough, and loaded with plant weapons that he kept hidden in that long, unruly russet hair.

But Kurama was weaving and staggering, his corduroy blazer in greasy tatters. He looked as though he had gone back to the Dark Tournament for a second helping of mayhem.

Hiei's mood plummeted. His 'reinforcements' consisted of two impaired youths barely out of their teens.

"Oi!" bellowed Urameshi. "Couldn't find Kuwabara. Brought this instead."

"Hello, Hiei." Kurama grinned crookedly. And at the sound of that cool, calm contralto voice, Hiei took a second look.

Though Kurama's face appeared as dirty as his jacket, his leaf-green eyes were clear and sharp, and he was not slimy with sweat like Kuwabara.

The drunken lurching was an act. The cavalry had come after all. Kurama raised an eyebrow. "Having fun yet?"

"Sure," Hiei replied. "Provided you call an ice pick through the head fun. When did you get here?"

"Three days ago."

"Why?"

"Curiosity."

"What took you so long?"

"Assessment."

"And what did you manage to assess?"

"No, wait," Urameshi slurred. "Lemme guess."

Hiei cut him off. "I'll save you the trouble." It all added up: Kuwabara's twitchy demeanor, Urameshi's fool antics, Hiei's own blunders. "Drugs."

"Drugs?" Urameshi blinked. "Like in... drugs?"

"Go on," Kurama said.

"Everyone's impaired," said Hiei, "but the drinks are water. Urameshi didn't drink anything, and he's, well, look at him. I'm acting like back when I stole the Kouma no Ken."

"Very good," said Kurama. "You've admitted to your shortcomings. I'd say we've made excellent progress."

"Shut up. Whatever this is, it's colorless and has that rancid honey smell. But since the whole Pavilion reeks of sweat, no one would notice."

Urameshi thumped a fist to his head, as if that helped him focus. "And the sound you said you could almost hear-"

"The crowd noise would cover that up too."

Kurama turned to Urameshi. "It's so gratifying when they grow up well."

"Double shut up," Hiei growled. But Kurama had accomplished the impossible. Hiei's spirits soared.

"Scent and sound," mused Kurama. "A powerful lure, but both so subtle that only a few could detect it consciously. Yuusuke smelled it. Hiei heard it. Ordinary people would just feel an overwhelming desire to go to the Pavilion. As for the barrier, I'd imagine it was to keep out fresh air and turn this place into what amounts to an opium den the size of a city block."

"Is that why I tried to clock you?" Giving Hiei a mortified glance, Urameshi scratched his head. "Drugs? Sorry, man."

"I always miss the fun," sighed Kurama. "However, in building an amusement park and attracting families, Yellowjacket will claim to be 'beautifying' the neighborhood. Officials will look the other way."

"Already did," Hiei affirmed. "The mayor."

"That carpetbagger?" said Kurama. "It's a wonder anyone wants him back."

"At least we know he's here," Hiei said. "Now that we've determined what makes this hellhole irresistible-"

"We dismantle it," Kurama replied.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Einstein?" Urameshi interrupted. "Howcum you an' the Bumblebees are bright-eyed when I'm fallin'-down stupid?"

"Countermeasures." Kurama ran a hand through his hair in a familiar gesture. "As soon as I realized what was going on, I took a general-purpose antidote that clears the head for a bit."

"I don't like being messed with." Urameshi clenched both fists and nudged Kurama. "You got any extras?"

Kurama handed him a green tablet. "Unfortunately, I only have enough left for two. And we still haven't found Kuwabara."

Taking the tablet, Urameshi chewed, pulled a face. "Gaaah! Wha'd you make this from? Coal waste?"

"I'm so sorry. Next time I'll wrap it in a lollipop." Kurama reached into his hair again. "Now what about you, Hiei?"

"Save the other pill for the idiot."

"Yeah, what _about_ you?" A somewhat sobered-up Urameshi pointed at Hiei. "Howcum you weren't acting up like me?"

"But I was," Hiei corrected. "Even with my natural resistance to drugs and poisons. Remember, it takes an entire bottle of scotch to get me the slightest bit tipsy."

"Don't brag in front of Yuusuke," said Kurama.

"It's not bragging if it's true. And I _am_ struggling to keep my head clear. I just blew my cover."

"Happens to the best of us," Kurama soothed.

"Yellowjacket knows I'm some sort of cop but not my name. At least there's that."

"Hey, fine, whatever." Urameshi raised his right arm and cocked a finger at the pagoda in his Rei Gun stance. "Let's blow this dope ring sky-high."

Hiei turned a critical eye to Kurama. "Thought you said the antidote worked."

"You can't do this, Yuusuke," Kurama put in hastily. "Not with so many innocent people around."

"You got a better idea?" Urameshi lowered his gun hand.

"Maybe. We need a surgical strike, something that would open the barrier to let in clean air, disable her controls, and take out her manufacturing paraphernalia."

"And this pagoda get-up is the factory," said Urameshi.

"Indeed," Kurama said. "It's centrally located, and raised so that Yellowjacket has a clear view of everything."

"Now what?" Urameshi tugged at his collar. "Is it getting a little hard to breathe?"

"As if we're running out of air." Hiei scanned the crowd. Did people seem more lethargic than before?

"We'd better move fast." Kurama glanced at the barrier.

"Crowd control," Hiei said. "See if you two can round up Kuwabara. I'll keep Yellowjacket occupied."

As Urameshi and Kurama pushed through the crowd, Hiei returned to the platform, more cautiously this time.

"Why, Duckie!" Yellowjacket simpered at him. "You're back."

"Can't keep a good cop down."

She touched her head-gear. A ring of Bumblebouncers swarmed around her seemingly from nowhere. "Care to see me try?"

Her honey-thick reek was an insult to Hiei's nostrils. "Stuffy in here." His head hurt. As for the air-there wasn't any. "I think your 'guests' used up all the breathing room."

Her eyes twinkled. "That's none of your concern, Duckie."

"It is when it's my air, too."

"Must you be so tedious?"

"Just one of my many superpowers." Time was running out. Hiei struggled to think straight. "Stuffy in here," he repeated.

"Of course it is, _Hiei,_ " she said.

His blood turned to ice.

She gave an arpeggio of shrill laughter. "If you could see your face! Did you really think you were flying incognito? Oh, Hiei, I not only know who you are, but what you do, where you go, and all your associates. I've only to say the word and my operatives will strike them down at any moment."

"You-!" _My friends...family...Yukina!_ His head whirling with shock, Hiei struggled to compose himself.

 _No, wait! THINK._

 _She saw, but doesn't recognize, Kurama? Or Urameshi? She said nothing of the Agency. She's surrounded by cheap hirelings._

 _True loyalty-you can feel it, and it can't be bought: Urameshi, Kurama, Kuwabara. She hires sham loyalty, like a mirror image cast in a poisoned lake._

 _She's bluffing!_ The knowledge was like a breath of clean, pure air. _All she really wants is to stop me interfering with her payout. But I won't let her have her own way!_

Licking dry lips, Hiei spoke again. "You got a full house here. So what's your angle?"

"Well, Duckie...luring warm bodies." She paused to savor his discomfort. "It even worked on you."

"Bodies? You couldn't cram one more in here."

"Well, of course, Duckie. That's the point."

"You're planning to kill this lot and make room for more?"

"Silly boy. There's no real money in that."

"Sell them? Haul in another lot?" _A little girl asleep in the midst of a poker game. Her father, feverishly betting the wheel. The old lady, waiting for them to return._

She smiled a little. "So you do have a brain after all."

"But when this many people go missing-"

"Oh, don't worry." Yellowjacket touched her head-gear. "If all goes well, no one will be around to miss them."

"How will you manage that?"

Yellowjacket waved at the pagoda. "Anything powerful enough to create a barrier of this size is also big enough to run an elevator of sorts." She gave what she probably thought was a girlish giggle. It sounded like a hive of angry hornets.

"A tunnel?" Hiei guessed. "To the Makai?"

"In this case," she corrected him, "more like a one-way feed chute. Straight to where there is a good market for humans." Her lips slid back from sharp yellow teeth. "Dead or alive."

 _Oh, swell._

She leaned forward and beckoned to him with one skinny finger. "Now come, Hiei. I can use someone like you, someone with brains and guts, not these low-level human trashbags." She waved a hand in the direction of the Bumblebouncers.

"They can hear you."

"They don't count. What do you say?"

"How does 'no' sound?"

Lazily buffing her bracelet, she sighed. "How unfortunate. Gentlemen, drag him below."

The bouncers circled him. Hiei circled back. He could take them all, but they were running out of time.

"This has become tedious." Yellowjacket moved one yellowed finger to a bead on her bracelet. Sensing a change in the air, an oncoming rush of ozone, Hiei dodged, but the weapon in her bracelet had a wide beam, and hit him like an electric shock.

For a moment he stood unable to move, dazed and tingling. It was therefore with a sense of relief that he spotted Urameshi and Kurama returning, Kuwabara in tow. At the sight of them, the bouncers halted, giving Hiei time to fight off the paralyzer.

Hiei, on the job, mind and body impaired, but winning was his business, and because the team was together now, somehow, they could. His friends joined him on the platform. He turned a wolf's grin on Yellowjacket.

She yawned. "Am I supposed to be frightened now?"

Kuwabara was looking very much the worse for wear, even in spite of Kurama's antidote. There was a bluish tinge to his skin and black thumbprints under his eyes. He was swaying on his feet when he said, "Kinda stuffy in here, ain't it?"

Hiei nodded hello. "I was just noticing."

"Hell, yeah, stuffy," echoed Urameshi. "And you couldn't cram one more body in this joint."

"About that." Still tingling from the aftershock, Hiei summed up what Yellowjacket had revealed. "She'll dump this crowd to the Makai, where she's got buyers lined up. Knowing her, she'll do it until she really does empty the city."

In a voice like chipped ice, Kurama said to Yellowjacket, "You'll be sending these people to the Demon plane?"

"Well, there's your white-slavery angle," said Urameshi.

"Such an ugly phrase." Yellowjacket toyed with her bracelet. "Don't be so crude, Duckie."

"So then this is just machinery?" scoffed Kuwabara. "No magic, no fairy dust?"

She giggled. "Now there's an amazing deduction."

"You're under arrest," said Hiei. "For suspicion of human trafficking."

"And gambling," put in Urameshi. "Don't forget gambling."

"Oh, but I've sunk a pretty penny into this, Duckie. I can't let a bunch of self-appointed crusaders stop me."

Kuwabara said, "Hey, shouldn't I do something too?"

"Be my guest," Kurama said graciously, "but pay special attention to all that glitters."

Once Kurama had spoken those cryptic words, it was as if a psychic connection formed without benefit of Hiei's Jagan, and each team member knew exactly what to do.

Yellowjacket's gold-on-green eyes narrowed in suspicion. But the Bumblebees, perhaps still stinging from her open insults, perhaps somewhat afraid of the newcomers, stood back a little.

"Lemme throw a few of these guys around?" Kuwabara cracked his knuckles. "Please? Might help clear my head."

"By all means," said Kurama.

While Kuwabara pitched bouncers off the platform-they seemed glad to go-Yellowjacket's fingers twitched toward her dangerous bracelet. But Urameshi stepped forward.

"Hey, lady," he said. "I gotta congratulate you."

"Congratulate?" Yellowjacket glared down at him.

"Yeah, all this money. Looks like you can book the time."

She shook her head. "I don't get your point-"

"Well, come on, you old hag!" Urameshi chuckled. "You'll finally have enough for that facelift."

"What?" She turned a livid gaze on Hiei. "Who is he?"

Hiei shrugged. "Just some brat I'm babysitting."

Urameshi squinted. "Better make it a full body lift."

She was seething like a beehive, fingers curling into claws.

"And maybe some lipo for that enormous butt."

"How dare you-!"

That was when Kurama struck. It was over rather quickly.

With a flick of the wrist, Kurama trapped Yellowjacket to the throne with a Thrashvine. The more she struggled, the tighter the tough green cords bound her.

Urameshi used a single, tight-beam Rei Gun blast to crack her bracelet into shards. Hiei precision-flamed her head-dress.

While Yellowjacket cursed them, Kurama said, "Nicely done, gentlemen. The throne was part of her control system, and the way she fondled her bracelet and head-dress indicated some of the controls were also hidden in her jewelry."

"As expected of you, Kurama." Hiei gave him a tired nod.

He nodded in return. "We'd better start crowd dispersal."

Hiei said, "If the rest of you can round up Ohkubo, Kirishima, and Sawamura, they can help get everyone out."

Kuwabara glanced curiously at Hiei. "Didn't think you even knew their names."

Urameshi chimed in: "Botan's on her way with back-up."

"She'll need it," said Kurama. "And you, Hiei?"

"Going to blow the barrier. Then burn this to ash."

Yellowjacket sputtered, "You wouldn't dare!"

"Hiei, I'm shocked." Kurama _tsk'd_ playfully. "You know the forensics team will want to examine every bit of evidence."

Hiei jerked his head at Yellowjacket. "Take the old bat outside, too."

"Don't you lay a hand on me!" she shrilled.

"Don't worry, Madam." Kurama inclined his head. "We'll remove you as though by magic."

She hosed them down with a glare of pure poison. "My lawyers will get me off. They always do."

Hiei said, "This time, tell them to bring their lunch."

It was satisfying to blast a hole in the barrier. After Hiei ascertained the others were shoveling people to safety, he returned to the pagoda and gave it some well-placed firebursts.

Bright flames leapt to gobble the wood. The throne caught. The platform collapsed. Machinery hidden below the platform popped and sizzled. Scorched metal, burnt honey.

Hiei watched with a measuring eye. His long experience with pyrotechnics told him the whole rig would go up any second. He felt as though they'd done a good night's work.

With a dollop of defiance, he took his sweet time departing before everything else blew sky-high.

Maybe he was still a little dopey.

He turned his back to the chaos and went outside. There was Urameshi, who had brought them together and changed Hiei for the better; brainy Kurama, whom he had known the longest; Kuwabara, made of guts and glory.

They stood watching, close enough to feel the heat of the flames. Once the pagoda blew, it took out the rest of the barrier. Fire spread from the pagoda until the last of the Tiki bars and craps tables were eaten away.

"There goes the neighborhood," said Urameshi.

Sirens wailed. The fire department was on its way.

Urameshi's luck held. The media would report that a gas leak had caused an explosion, with the resulting fire destroying the new 'amusement park.' There had been no casualties. Botan and the other ferry girls had taken away Yellowjacket and the Bumblebees. Even the mayor made it out safely.

There would be no need for Kurama's dreamflower pollen; none of the heavily-drugged gamblers or sleepy kids would remember a gaggle of girls on flying oars.

Urameshi sighed. "Too bad Hiei didn't make it out."

"Mustn't speak ill of the dead," said Kurama.

"I'm right here, you dolts."

"Oh?" Looking down at him, Urameshi feigned surprise. "You're so insignificantly tiny I didn't see you."

 _Maybe I really will kill him_ , thought Hiei.

Kurama fingered his ruined blazer. "We need team jackets."

"Make that team hearing aids." Hiei's ears were still ringing from the din.

Of them all, Kuwabara stood silent, taking no part in the post-game ritual of ribbing. Fireglow caught the planes of his Easter Island face.

Hiei turned to Kuwabara. "Why'd you go into that pit in the first place? Didn't you see the barrier?"

"Hell yeah." Kuwabara scornfully dragged a forearm across his shiny brow. "But I knew Ohkubo and them went in."

"And you didn't ask for my help because?..."

Kuwabara didn't meet Hiei's gaze. "As if I'd waste breath explaining the whole damn thing."

Hiei knew it was a testament to Kuwabara-the-man's toughness that he could leave the Nightwalk Pavilion at all. _I underestimated him again,_ Hiei thought.

"Besides," Kuwabara added, "I was sure you'd refuse."

Hiei shook his head. "You underestimated me, too."

They watched the palace of dreams burn.

-30-


End file.
